Why Agile Is on Life Support (And What Comes Next)
"You were the chosen one." That's how I feel about what happened to agile. We took beautiful principles for unleashing human potential and turned them into exactly what we were trying to escape: rigid ceremonies, certification mills, and story point torture sessions.
What Went Wrong:
🏝️ Cargo cult behavior: Copying agile forms without understanding the spirit
📜 Certification industrial complex: Weekend certifications and 150+ page frameworks
⚖️ Principles vs practices: We codified flexibility and removed adaptability
🔄 The scaling trap: When "this helped our team" becomes "mandatory for all teams"
What Actually Works:
✅ Experimenting and Learning is REAL agility
✅ Principles (trust, transparency) beat frameworks every time
✅ Voluntary adoption vs mandated compliance
✅ Local ownership vs corporate scaling
Real Examples:
- Valve: No hierarchy, billions in revenue through principles over process
- W.L. Gore: Lattice organization enabling constant innovation
- Spotify: Evolved organically, never became rigid doctrine
The Pattern:
- Boeing (rigid processes) failed.
- Alcoa (flexible principles) succeeded.
Your approach avoids the agile trap by growing change organically with informal leaders instead of imposing structure from above.
Transcript
"You were the chosen one."
That's Obi-Wan to Anakin as he becomes Darth Vader. And honestly? That's exactly how I feel about what happened to agile.
See, I'm an agile coach. I STILL believe in every word of the agile manifesto. But what I see in many organizations today? It breaks my heart.
We took something beautiful - principles for unleashing human potential - and turned it into exactly what we were trying to escape. Rigid ceremonies. Certification mills. Story point torture sessions.
Last week I gave you a playbook for experiments. Start small. Work with informal leaders. Make progress visible. Let success spread. And I know some of you thought: "This sounds a lot like agile!"
Well... yes and no.
Today, I'm going to show you how agile lost its soul, why your experiments from last week are different, and most importantly - how to keep your changes from suffering the same fate.
**[TITLE CARD: Why Agile Died (And What Comes Next)]**
### **The Cargo Cult Comedy Hour**
A colleague described modern agile implementations perfectly: cargo cult behavior.
Quick history lesson! During World War II, Pacific islanders saw planes bringing supplies. After the war, they built fake runways, wooden control towers, even coconut headphones, hoping the planes would return and bring more of this prescious cargo.
They copied all the forms perfectly. But, somehow... the planes never came back. Shocking, right? This phenomenon was later called "Cargo Cult"
Now picture your last "agile transformation":
- Daily standups? - Check - (Where everyone gives status reports)
- Sprint planning? - Check - (... and the plan falls apart the next day)
- Retrospectives? - Check - (Where nothing really changes)
- Actual agility? *[buzzer sound]*
We built the runway. But we are still waiting for the planes.
### **Remember What Agile Was Actually About**
Let's revisit 2001. Seventeen developers, frustrated with heavyweight processes, write four values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Every. Single. Word. Still. True.
Now look, I know some teams have made Frameworks like Scrum work beautifully. When done with the right spirit, it can be immensely powerful. But too often, what we built on top of the manifesto became the problem.
See the connection to our experiments last week? Small changes. Human-centered. Adaptive. That's actually what agile meant to be!
But then we did something very human - we took principles and turned them into rules. We took "responding to change" and made it a rigid two-week sprint cycle. We took "individuals and interactions" and made it a 15-minute standing meeting.
We codified everything and removed the very flexibility we were trying to create.
### **Why Your Experiments Are Different**
Remember our approach from last week? Let me show you why it avoids the agile trap:
Here's what a Typical Agile transformation looks like: "We're implementing Scrum starting Monday. Here's your training. Resistance is futile."
And here is our approach with Liberty experiments: "Hey, what if we tried this one thing for two weeks? You design the metrics. We'll adjust based on what we learn."
See the difference? One imposes structure. The other grows it organically with your informal leaders.
One creates cargo cults. The other creates genuine change.
### **The Certification Industrial Complex**
Want to know what really killed agile? We industrialized it.
- Weekend Scrum Master certifications
- The SAFe framework with a manual over 150 pages long
- Agile coaches for hire, who have never shipped anything
We looked at "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" and thought, "You know what this needs? More certificates! More processes! More tools!"
Of course I can understand that companies wanted guarantees: "Hire certified people, get predictable results." But you can't certify someone into caring about outcomes. You cannot framework your way to psychological safety.
It's like learning to dance from a manual. Sure, you know the steps, but can you feel the music?
### **The Pattern We Keep Missing**
Remember Boeing from from Episode 1? They had all the processes. They failed.
Remember Alcoa? They focused on principles. They succeeded.
The pattern is right there:
- Rigid implementation leads to Failure
- Principled experimentation leads to Success
Your experiments from last week? You're already doing it right. You started with a problem, not a framework. You involved the people who actually do the work. You're measuring what matters to THEM.
That's real agility. Not the branded, certified, consultant-delivered kind. The human kind.
### **Learning From the Failures**
I've seen too many "agile transformations" struggle. But here's what's interesting - they usually fail in the same ways:
**They ignore the power structure**: Remember our informal leaders from Episode 2? Most agile implementations pretend they don't exist. Big mistake.
**They mandate instead of inspire**: "Thou shalt have retrospectives" vs "What would help us improve?"
**They optimize for compliance**: Teams going through motions vs teams solving problems.
The saddest part? Teams often start excited. They believe in the principles. Then they get buried under process and lose faith.
### **What Actually Works (You're Already Doing It)**
Let's connect the dots from our journey so far:
**Episode 1**: Trust beats control
**Episode 2**: Informal leaders drive real change
**Episode 3**: Small experiments and work with those leaders
**Episode 4**: Principles beat frameworks
You see it? You're not implementing agile or any other framework. You're applying timeless principles through experiments designed by the people who'll make them work.
That's why your approach will succeed where agile transformations failed.
### **Protecting Your Success From Becoming Dogma**
Now here's the danger - success can become its own trap. Your beautiful experiment works. Other teams want to copy it. Leadership wants to "scale it."
This is the moment where agile died. When "let's try pair programming" became "everyone must pair program." When "this helped our team" became "mandatory for all teams."
How do you avoid this?
**Keep experimenting**: What worked last month might not work next month. Stay adaptive.
**Keep it voluntary**: Forced best practices become worst practices.
**Keep ownership local**: Let each team adapt ideas to their context.
**Keep principles over practices**: Ask "why did this work?" not just "what did we do?"
Remember - you're growing a garden, not manufacturing widgets.
### **Real Organizations Getting It Right**
**Look at Valve**: They have no formal hierarchy. People choose their own projects. Still, billions in revenue. How? Principles (create value) over process (approval chains).
**Does W.L. Gore & Associates ring a bell?**: Organized as a "Lattice organization" - anyone can talk to anyone. Teams form organically around opportunities. Result? Constant innovation, from Gore-Tex to guitar strings.
**Or Spotify's Tribes**: Started as an experiment in one area. What became known as the "Spotify Model" was just a snapshot in time. It evolved based on what worked. Never became rigid law.
Notice what they share? They treat organization design as an ongoing experiment, not a final destination.
### **Your Path Forward**
So where does this leave you?
Keep running experiments. But now you know why:
- Not to implement a methodology
- Not to follow a framework
-> But to discover what helps YOUR people do their best work
When someone asks "What methodology do you use?" your answer should be: "We experiment with what works for us."
When they push for specifics, share principles, not practices. For example:
- "We believe in transparency, so we make our work visible"
- "We value feedback, so we check in regularly"
- "We respect expertise, so teams own their processes"
### **The Three-Part Leadership Challenge**
Now you might be wondering - this all sounds great, but what can I actually do to make that change happen?
What if you're the CEO trying to transform an entire organization?
What if you're a middle manager caught between resistant executives and skeptical teams?
What if you're an individual contributor with no formal authority at all?
The principles remain the same, but the tactics change dramatically. Over the coming weeks, we'll explore all three scenarios. Because real change happens at every level, and each has its own opportunities and challenges.
### **The Hope Hidden in Agile's Failure**
You know what's beautiful about agile's struggles? It taught us exactly what NOT to do:
- Don't turn principles into rigid rules
- Don't ignore existing power structures
- Don't mandate from above
- Don't optimize for process over outcomes
But use those lessons:
- Keep principles flexible
- Work with informal leaders
- Let adoption be voluntary
- Focus on real results
That's not a framework. That's wisdom.
### **Your Continued Journey**
The agile manifesto is still right. Every word. We just need the courage to actually live it instead of processing it to death.
Your experiments from last week? That's real agility. Working with informal leaders? That's "individuals and interactions." Making progress visible? That's "working software." Adjusting based on learning? That's "responding to change."
You're already doing it. You just don't need a certificate to prove it.
Next week, we start our three-part series on leading change from different positions. Whether you're the CEO, a middle manager, or someone with no formal power at all - there's a way to create meaningful change.
Keep experimenting. Keep learning. Keep building.
This is The Liberty Framework. Let's create workplaces that actually work.
See you next time!